‘ANNIE Get Your Gun” is refusing to pack up its pistols and get out of town, which is causing big headaches for “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”
A new $10 million musical based on the 1967 movie starring Julie Andrews, “Thoroughly Modern Millie” was scheduled to open this fall at the Marquis Theatre.
But those plans were put on hold this week because “Annie Get Your Gun” producer Barry Weissler has decided to try and squeeze another five months out of his long-running revival.
“You want to know what is happening with ‘Millie’?” asks the show’s producer Hal Luftig. “Call Mr. Weissler. He can tell you better than I.”
Weissler was traveling yesterday and could not be reached.
But sources close to him say he has no desire to close a show that, at this point, is still making money in the Marquis.
“Annie Get Your Gun,” which opened in 1999, got a new lease on life this spring when Reba McEntire took over the title role and played to sold-out houses.
She left the production last month, replaced by Crystal Bernard, late of TV’s “Wings.”
With McEntire in the lead, the musical regularly grossed $800,000 a week.
With Bernard as Annie Oakley, the betting on Broadway was that the weekly gross would slide below the weekly running cost, said to be about $400,000.
“Annie Get Your Gun,” theater people believed, would be gone by the end of the summer.
Things didn’t work out that way.
The grosses have tumbled, all right, but still clock in at about $450,000 a week, which means the show runs at a small profit.
Its staying power can be attributed to all the press McEntire generated for the show during her run. She raised its profile, making it seem like a new production and lodging it in the minds of the tourists who are now flocking to it.
They will depart in the fall, however, and production sources say ticket sales for “Annie Get Your Gun” in September and October are weak.
But Weissler believes he can weather the slump and come roaring back during the winter holidays, which are always strong for family musicals like “Annie Get Your Gun.”
He’s also put out feelers to Dolly Parton, Melissa Etheridge and Naomi Judd, though all three have turned him down.
“Whenever you ask him if he’s got someone for the fall, he just smiles and says he’s got lots of ideas,” one production source says. “What can you say? Nobody thought he could get Reba McEntire, and he did.”
The producers of “Millie,” meanwhile, are gnashing their teeth.
They were happy with a fall opening, since their only competition would have been “Mamma Mia!” – a blockbuster that is practically sold out until spring.
Now it looks as if they’ll have to open “Millie” in April, when there will be several new musicals fighting for publicity and ticket buyers.
They’ve released their cast, canceled promotional tie-ins with American Express and are making plans to store their $1 million set.
“Do you need an elevator in your apartment?” asks Luftig. “Our set has one and I’ve got no place to put it.”
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Doug Fields’ comedy, “Down South,” has been extended at Rattlestick Theatre through Sept. 9 . . . Judy Kaye, Louise Pitre and Karen Mason have been cast as the leads in “Mamma Mia!,” opening in October at the Winter Garden.